The chemical, made infamous by the film Erin Brockovich, is linked to serious health conditions, including cancer and organ damage. Residents near Harita’s mining site in the village of Kawasi report stomach pain, coughing up blood, and continued dependence on the contaminated spring, with no warning issued by the company.
Harita Group supplies around 6% of the world’s nickel—critical to EV batteries—and partners with global automakers including Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, and potentially Tesla, BMW, and Volkswagen. Publicly, Harita has maintained that its water quality meets legal standards. However, a ransomware hack in 2023 exposed over 500 GB of internal emails, lab reports, and meeting notes, revealing a different narrative.
Testing records from 2012 to 2023 show chromium-6 levels routinely exceeded Indonesia’s legal threshold of 50 parts per billion for drinking water—sometimes by as much as threefold. Executives, including Harita’s health and environment head, Tonny Gultom, flagged the issue as early as 2013, yet no public disclosure was made. By 2021, mining infrastructure had crept within 200 meters of Kawasi’s primary water spring.
Despite these internal alarms, Harita continued operations, ramped up production, and expanded its processing capacity through a joint venture with China’s Lygend Resources. The venture, Halmahera Persada Lygend, generated over $1 billion in revenue within its first year.
In the face of mounting pressure, Harita Nickel released a statement on May 4, 2025, defending its environmental practices and reaffirming its commitment to transparency. The company emphasized compliance with Indonesia’s environmental regulations, investments in sedimentation ponds, runoff management systems, and real-time monitoring through SPARING devices linked to national reporting systems.
Harita also touted its participation in the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA) assessment process and claimed no non-conformities were found in independent assessments across 2023 and 2024. A press release showed Gultom raising a glass of water from the Kawasi spring—though critics noted the gesture lacked clarity on whether he actually drank from it.
Mercedes-Benz confirmed its indirect sourcing from the site and has conducted audits in response to the reports. Toyota reaffirmed its human rights policies, while other automakers—including Tesla and BMW—have yet to issue a public response.
Environmental law experts, including Indonesia’s former corruption commissioner Laode M. Syarif, suggest the leaked documents could serve as grounds for civil or criminal prosecution. Despite efforts by Harita to downplay the findings and assert compliance, internal reports—including one dated just two days before The Guardian published its 2022 exposé—document chromium-6 levels of 128 ppb at Kawasi’s spring, more than double the legal limit.
As the EV industry faces increased scrutiny over the ethical sourcing of minerals, Harita’s case underscores the growing tension between green technology supply chains and the environmental cost of resource extraction.
